Advancements in communications technology and increased consumer sophistication have challenged the distributors of multimedia programming to provide the public with entertainment services more convenient and accessible than those traditionally made available over cable television and telephone systems. An improving communications infrastructure has resulted in the proliferation of pay-per-view media services in most of the larger broadcast markets. Most pay-per-view systems permit the consumer to choose from a relatively small number of motion picture selections for home viewing, which are generally presented only at pre-scheduled viewing times.
A number of on-demand video services have been developed that permit the consumer to order desired programs for home viewing through the household telephone line. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,347, assigned to Bell Atlantic Network Services, discloses a sophisticated video-on-demand telephone service that provides consumer ordered video programming to a plurality of households through use of a public switched telephone network (PSTN). An extensive discussion regarding the inherent deficiencies of communicating video and other multimedia signals over standard bandwidth limited analog telephone lines is provided in the '347 patent.
The video-on-demand system disclosed in the '347 patent and other conventional telephony-based multimedia services fail to satisfactorily address the adverse impact to home communications during periods of prolonged program viewing. For example, a typical theatrical motion picture can tie up the household telephone line for over two hours. Further, such sophisticated telephony-based multimedia services generally require procurement of expensive communications and diagnostic equipment by the pay-per-view provider to ensure a reasonable level of signal quality and system reliability. These and other related operating expenses, however, are typically passed on to the consumer.
Importantly, conventional telephony-based multimedia services fail to provide media presentation control features now expected by the sophisticated consumer after enjoying more than a decade of home entertainment through the use of the video cassette recorder (VCR). Functions such as fast forward, reverse, and pause, for example, are standard presentation control functions now provided by all or most home VCRs, and are typically effectuated by use of an infrared (IR) remote control handset. The inherent limitations in the transmission bandwidth of conventional telephone lines, as well as conventional cable television channels, generally can not accommodate full VCR-type control functionality when employed to support a multimedia communication system adapted to provide pay-per-view service to a large number of subscribing customers.
In FIG. 1, there is illustrated a conceptualized block diagram of a conventional pay-per-view communication service for providing multimedia program distribution to a plurality of households over a public switched telephone network. Movies are typically stored on one or more media servers 10, each of which is multiplexed to the PSTN 16. A telephonic ordering system 14 is generally coupled to the PSTN 16 and provides a means for accepting a pay-per-view order from a customer or user 20. Upon verifying the account status of a user 20, the media server 10 typically transmits the ordered movie or program to a decoder box 22 coupled to the customer's telephone line 18. The transmitted program is continuously decoded by the decoder box 22 during the presentation of the selected program on the customer's television 24. Limitations in the transmission bandwidth of the telephone lines 18, as well as limitations in the switching capability of the PSTN 16, generally preclude the use of a PSTN 16 to support a multimedia communication system that provides high quality, full motion video signal transmission with full VCR-type control functionality.
It is believed that approximately seventy-three percent (73%) of all homes in the United States have at least one VCR. Most VCRs have a purchase price in the range of $250 to $400, representing a sizable luxury investment for most consumers. As discussed previously, most VCRs are controlled by use of an IR remote control handset, allowing the user to control the presentation of a video program using various control modes such as reverse, pause, and fast forward, for example. Conventional pay-per-view communication services, in contrast to viewing programs on a home VCR, generally require the customer to pay relatively large premiums on a monthly basis and yet do not provide basic VCR-type functionality inherent in the customer's home VCR.
There exists a need in the pay-per-view communications industry for a relatively simple system that capitalizes on the investment made by most consumer's in their home VCR, and one that provides VCR-type control over the presentation of a selected program. There exists a further need to provide a multimedia communication system that can efficiently distribute programming to a plurality of customers without requiring complex and typically expensive networking hardware and software at the communication distribution center. The present invention fulfills these and other needs.